But 81 of the 88 people arrested were women working as dancers–charged with using false IDs to gain employment. Since most of the dancers were arrested for documentation issues and turned over to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) is calling this a de facto immigration raid.

And that would undermine Special Order 40, under which LAPD officers are prohibited from initiating contact with a person solely to determine whether they are legal residents. The order was designed to reassure undocumented immigrants that they can safely contact police in emergencies or as informants without fear of deportation.

LAPD Deputy Chief Jose Perez insists that immigration did not motivate the raid, saying, “People were involved in criminal activity. If this were an immigration raid, we would not have let the other 300 people [in attendance at the club] go.” But were these women criminals–or human trafficking victims?

How this raid went down illustrates the thickets of overlapping jurisdictions around cases of foreign nationals tracked into the U.S., estimated between 14,500-17,500 each year, the majority women [PDF]. Local police, immigration agencies and the federal government all have a stake in such cases, and each may prioritize the enforcement of different laws. In this tangle, the rights of trafficking victims under federal law can easily get lost.

CHIRLA criticizes how the law enforcement agencies handled the potential human trafficking violations in the Club 907 case. Says Angelica Salas, executive director of the coalition,

The LAPD and ICE knew or at least suspected that women working at the club were being exploited and yet no contingency plan was established to ensure all potential victims received appropriate guidance and recourse. Instead, [most] of the women were turned over to ICE and [a handful] now face deportation while the Club remains open for business.

By their own account, the women working at Club 907 were financially and sexually exploited. CHIRLA interviewed nearly 30 “dancers” who were required to earn at least $600 a week for the club, which meant “socializing” for 20 hours. Once that quota was met, “dancers” were paid 19 cents a minute, or $228 a week. Women who did not make the quota were required to pay the club out-of-pocket for the under-quota amount, and were responsible for the tab if a customer left without paying. According to Xiomara Corpeno, director of organizing for CHIRLA,

Many of the women worked 10+ hours a day and were not making minimum wage. … It was coercion through deception. These folks were caught up in a system where they could never get ahead. … These allegations, if true, are violations of California labor law and smack of indentured servitude.

Moreover, dancers report that club managers did not provide protection from fondling patrons, and “although tolerating sexual advances by patrons was not encouraged by management, hostesses who did [tolerate sexual advances] received preferential treatment, including better shifts.”

The FBI defines trafficking as any use of force or fraud to coerce work. Their “Help for Victims” brochure informs potential victims that no employer can:

Force you to work against your will

Collect a debt by using threats or forcing you to work to pay the deb;

Force you to work using threats to harm you or your family

Force or pressure you into prostitution or to do other sexual acts

Use you for any kind of sex work if you are under 18

Take away your passport, birth certificate or identification card to control you or your movements.

LAPD spokesperson Lt. Paul Vernon agrees that some of the women arrested may have been illegal immigrants who were forced to work at the club after being trafficked into the U.S., noting that false identification charges are often accompanied by human trafficking. Jessica Dominguez, an attorney for many of the women, believes that these women should be eligible for a U-visa, granting temporary legal status to victims of crimes who cooperate with authorities in prosecuting a crime.

But the LAPD is not actively investigating issues of trafficking or indentured servitude. According to Deputy Chief Perez,

Nobody made allegations of human trafficking or sexual trafficking. These women were not women who were kidnapped at gunpoint and brought to this country against their will. These women were engaged in criminal activity [use of false documents] of their own accord.

But this narrow version of trafficking does not take into account allegations that Club 907 required “dancers” to work to pay off under-quota “debt” (#2 above) and may have pressured some into sexual acts (#4 above). When asked about possible indentured servitude, Perez responded, “I have no idea what their hiring practices were. That’s a labor violation and CHIRLA is taking it up with labor.”

Corpeno reports that many of the women arrested were young, single mothers doing what they had to do to provide for their children, and a sizable number have experienced domestic violence:

These women are survivors. They have been shunned by their families and by society because of their work. I don’t’ think the police understand that when they made comments about legal status — even side comments– they made [the "dancers"] fearful about reporting domestic violence or trafficking.

Comments

Even if the girls were smuggled into the U.S. of their own will the exploitation they suffered is legally considered more dire. Suspicion of trafficking trumps illegal immigration on the federal level (and if ICE is involved it's there). If a lawyer and an advocate can get in there and scream trafficking they've got the case.

As long as the customers are not charged by police – all will continue. Those charged may well be violating statutes – but reducing demand is the only approach that will ultimately be successful in stopping the practices.